Welcome 2007

Out with 2006 and in with 07. I'm a big fan of the years changing. Purely mental, but it feels to me like if one year was bad you've got a whole new opportunity for something different the next. I've made a few plans for this year. I won't call them resolutions because they just seem destined for failure. Resolutions are all good for the first couple of days or even a couple of weeks but they then fade into obscurity like so many other well-intentioned life-altering decisions. So what will 2007 bring? A change of country, a better lifestyle, hopefully new work challenges and the opportunity to enjoy myself and someone else.

A few encounters throughout the month of December got me thinking. I'm generally regarded as a fairly empathetic person, but I'm finding my tolerance levels dissipating rapidly for certain models of behaviour. Probably chief among these is people who have deep-seated insecurities that they then either a) try to project onto others or b) use as an excuse to behave childishly and hurl insults to boost their own self-esteem. I'm pretty much over the "well, they're young and still have much to learn" phase. These people are in their early-mid twenties and sorry, but eventually you have to give up making excuses for their behaviour and just call them on the fact that they need to grow up and learn to deal with other human beings properly. I don't even bother hiding my disdain for them anymore. It's too tiring and perhaps I'm just becoming an old and grumpy fart. I guess with every passing year I become pickier and pickier about the people I choose to interact with.

Work starts back this week. I find I'm actually looking forward to it, despite the fact that I've returned to my old night-owl status over these holidays, sleeping during the day and staying up til late at night. This is the real make or break period as far as the student's entrance for uni goes, but I'm fairly confident my whole class should be attending uni in a month or two's time.

Also been looking at some forums for ESL teachers where there was an interesting discussion about the "eternal wanderers". Those teachers that just move from country to country as the whim takes them. Am I one of those guys/girls? I think I fall into the yes and no category. I do LOVE living overseas. The chance to pick up a foreign language, the challenge of seeing whether you can integrate into a foreign culture and the bizarre variety of characters you meet are all very addictive components of the overseas experience. One of the things that has kept me moving from the places I've been was meeting the "lifers". The bitter and the twisted. Those that have been elsewhere to long to return home. They have no job prospects for their return and lack any kind of reasonable focus. Even most of the married ones aren't even that happy and would kill to either a) be single again or b) be able to take their new family back to their native country. I have no problem with the getting married part, but you need to really think about what's going to happen. Can you stay in this country where you have no legal or social benefits for the rest of your life? What happens when you get old? Or are you old and still dating 20 year old conversation-hunters? This is a large part of the reason why I've continued to study in between jaunts as I don't want to find myself in the position where it's difficult to return home should I someday want to. Besides which, I think even if you do get married there are still opportunities for your spouse and you to travel together. I don't want much, do I?
Anyhow, the discussion was interesting in the sense that some of the posters will find it very difficult to go home where their 10 years experience teaching conversational English in Korea will actually mean nothing. More interesting though was seeing the range of responses and the underlying rejection of 20th/21st Century social values/expectations. Is that something specific to the "eternal wanderer"? I know how easily I get swept up in those expectations (get a job, get a house, climb the ladder, Monty etc) when I'm living in Australia so it was interesting hearing what some people had to say on this very topic.

Perhaps something more substantial to say on this topic another day, I'm still mulling it over.